Otitis media revealing a congenital tuberculosisis in preterm neonate: a case report

Congenital tuberculosis is rare and fatal. The delay in diagnosis is very common in most cases. We report a premature infant born after 30 weeks of gestation; the diagnosis was suspected in front of otorrhea at 5 weeks of life with the announcement of the death of the mother following multifocal tuberculosis. The mycobacterium tuberculosis was isolated in direct examination of needle biopsy (cytopunction) of cervical lymphadenopathy; the infant had received antibacillary treatment for 12 months according to the national protocol; no index case in the family was objectified. The infant was treated, and he is recovering with good clinical evolution. This case raises the difficulty of diagnosing tuberculosis in the neonatal period as well as the interest of establishing in our context a strategy for screening nosocomial infections of tuberculosis in an inpatient setting.